Hard Disk Drive prices triple

The flooding in Bangkok, Thailand where a factory which makes components for hard disk drives has been affected and caused global prices of these components to soar in the last week. They appear to be up to three times what they were previously and this is having problems both for computer manufacturers and for people like myself who repair computers.

I don't keep much stock of these commodity items, generally purchasing exact replacements for the computers who need these items due to hard disk drive crashes, a not unlikely event. This makes the repairs often uneconomically viable especially if a new copy of Windows needs to be purchased as well due to no recovery disc creation and no CDs in the box so to speak. Add at least a couple of hours of my labour and you almost approach the price of a new laptop.

I also see that computer manufacturers are also increasing their prices quickly, though they must have a reasonable stock of drives.

Another effect is the decision whether to use an SSD in a new PC build. The speed benefit is huge and the price difference is now reduced, so if you don't need a large capacity from day one then the SSD option is much more attractive. You can always add a hard disk drive later when presumably the prices are more reasonable.

It is amazing how quickly the prices have gone through the roof as the suppliers take advantage of the panic in the market. Imagine if car prices did the same.

Vista laptops

I've had a series of laptops in for repair, all running Windows Vista, all about three years old and really slow and all failing with a variety of problems. What is going on?

They take ages to repair much more than I can reasonably charge the client for. Most have just 1Gb of memory and need all the accumulated programs removing from the start-up list before you can get any reasonable response from them. Running an anti-virus scan on them can take hours and I certainly can't do anything else at the same time. Windows Update won't run and I often need to manually load Service Packs. Even rebooting them takes ages. And all run very warm.

I suppose that they have all reached the end of their useful life, yet with our present economic climate people cannot afford to replace them.

I'm gradually working my way through the backlog.

Getting the best bang for the buck

With the release of the new Intel 'Sandy Bridge' Pentium and Celeron and AMD Llano CPUs come new options in the low-end or value segment of the processor market. Assuming that CPU performance is directly related to overall system performance by ignoring other factors such as memory, storage, graphics etc., we strive to create the best 'bang for the buck' desktop systems using these essential components.

In reality, there is very little overall system performance difference for any of these CPUs based on a different architectures and motherboards. Indeed in a recent comparative test of generations of these architectures less than 25% of general performance separated the oldest and latest. It isn't until the mid-range performance where great differences are noticed such as the Intel Core i5-2500K when it is suitably overclocked. Then personal desire seems to take preference over necessity. DIY and bespoke system builders take advantage of this. The mainstream PC manufacturers mostly take the easy option of standard configurations. DELL is perhaps the odd one out here with its XPS and Alienware brands.

The variation in performance in the dual-core Socket AM3, FM1, LGA1155, LGA1156 and LGA775 CPUs is fairly minimal as is their quad-core versions. Bargains can be had by taking a £50 processor overclocking it by 20% (no expensive cooling solutions here) and by unlocking a core or two as well. They st

Windows XP R.I.P.

I've had a steady number of requests for Windows XP on a new system. I've had to tell them that it is no longer available from DELL or any other manufacturer or retailer and apart from a few 'dodgy' copies on eBaY that's it. No more.

I then try to sell them on the benefits of the new Windows 7 over an operating system that was designed over 15 years ago, sold for the last 10 years, no longer supported from Microsoft for consumers, etc. It generally comes down to two excuses as to why they want it; I'm used to Windows XP and don't want to change (usually an elderly customer); or my business critical application only runs on Windows XP or IE6. For the latter I argue if it is business critical either buy the updated version or switch to an application that is supported for Windows 7 and the future. With a lot of pirated software in the small business segment these become hard lessons to learn.

There are exceptions, such as Lotus Organiser. This little application won the hearts and minds of users many years ago and though it has been discontinued by IBM it is sorely missed and there is a limited upgrade path to any similar application. If anyone has the source code and could develop a similar product for a reasonable cost they would have a winner.

So the end is nigh for Windows XP, but I dare say I will still be 'fixing' it for a few years yet on old DELL, Compaq, Time, Acer, etc. systems to prove what an enduring bit of software it really is.

Damn FarmVille

I'm spending much too much time playing this stupid game and organising my life around it. Why did I ever start it? Especially as I made loads of mistakes at the beginning which I'm having to live with and I'm certainly not going to spend any money on it!

So I've built this super-fast computer for 3D games playing and all I'm doing is Flash-based FarmVille. Where's the sense in that? The first thing that I do in the morning is harvest the crops that grew overnight so that I can plant some more which I can harvest before I go to bed. I've got lots of coins, goods, gifts and XP but nothing to do with it. Really stupid!

Ahhh well, I'm off to check my barley and hops so that I can brew some more beer.

Rejuvenating old multi-core machines

There seems to be a spate of fairly modern systems (especially Packard Bell) with Intel Core 2 Duo and Quad CPUs malfunctioning with motherboard failures. Often the customer will opt for a new replacement rather than a costly repair and software rebuild.


It seems a shame to just junk these systems after stripping for spare parts, then selling the CPUs and lighter components on eBay for a few pounds. I started buying new cases and motherboards for these systems for about £35 each and then re-constructing the systems and reselling them for typically half the price of an equivalent new system. Even the old OEM versions of Windows Vista is happy to be reinstalled and reactivated.

I probably don't make much profit on these but at least a bunch of parts will find a new home. I do tell the customer that they are rebuilds and hence do not offer a warranty with them. Apart from if they go bad in a couple of weeks, I'll repair or replace them.

Onwards to 8Gb memory

It really is too good an opportunity to miss. Upgrade the memory in my games system that is. The first desktop system to run with 8Gb. With quality branded gamer/enthusiast Kingston HyperX Blu DDR3 1600GHz at under £25 for 2x2Gb matched pair.

I don't really see any performance difference yet, but just to idle Windows 7 with just 18% of the memory capacity is amazing. DDR3 memory prices just continue to drop. I purchased a similar pair when I assembled the system late last year for £47 and I thought that was a bargain. Now with prices about half as much it really is too good to miss.